


Prelude and Postscript

by Useless19



Series: MegOP Week [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Post-War, Pre-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22136419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Useless19/pseuds/Useless19
Summary: "You won, Optimus, donotpretend otherwise. If you cannot maintain your desired peace, don’t come crying to me for help. I amdone."For MegOP week, Day 1: Pre-war & Post-war
Relationships: Megatron/Optimus Prime, Megatron/Orion Pax
Series: MegOP Week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593355
Comments: 7
Kudos: 102
Collections: MegOP Week 2020





	Prelude and Postscript

The data clerk was nervous.

Megatronus would have been surprised if he hadn't been. He might have an unusually large frame compared to the rest of his caste, but he was still dwarfed by the gladiators in the arena.

Nervous, but resolutely determined to speak to Megatronus.

Lucky for him, Megatronus liked pluck, and Soundwave had also indicated that this mech might be worth listening to.

"Megatronus, my name is Orion Pax." The archivist held out his hand, likely for an upper-caste handshake.

Megatronus clasped his forearm instead, a gladiatorial challenge for a new opponent, or a friendly greeting amidst the rest of the low-caste, or an insult to the high-caste. How Pax chose to take it would tell Megatronus a lot about him.

"You are a long way from your assigned district," Megatronus said.

Pax was too polite to grimace properly — at either the words or the greeting — but his mouth took on a determined slant and he reset his vocaliser.

"I was under the impression that caste-restricted locations were something you were against," he said evenly.

"True." Megatronus grinned. "However, some of the spies from the high-caste are easily tripped up. I dislike wasting time."

"I'm not a spy."

"Nor would I expect you to admit to being so this soon," Megatronus said. "Come, I'm interested to hear what has brought you to Kaon, Orion Pax."

Pax brightened. If he _was_ a spy, he was a good one.

Megatronus led Pax into the pit manager’s office — the slagger was out in Tarn today, looking for promising new recruits in mechs assigned to the scrapyard — and more than once caught himself staring at brightly polished plating and wheels just strong enough to withstand Kaon’s streets while also looking delicate and pretty.

Well, if Pax got discomforted from a bit of leering, it would only serve to let Megatronus keep the advantage.

"I’ve heard your speeches," Pax said, once the door was closed. "They’re wonderful. They put words to feelings I’d only just begun to realise existed."

"It doesn’t bother you, then? That a lowly gladiator dares to condemn the high-caste?" Megatronus clasped his hands behind his back. "That your mid-caste lifestyle may become… uncomfortable if the denizens of Kaon are afforded the full rights and privileges of one such as yourself?"

"It makes me more uncomfortable knowing that there are mechs out there _without_ my level of lawful protection," Pax said, optics bright. "If there is something I can do to help those less fortunate, then I must but try."

Never had anyone sounded so sincere while saying exactly what Megatronus wanted to hear. A beautiful mech with beautiful words — if he wasn’t a High Council spy then this was a dream.

Megatronus could indulge himself for now. They could always do rigorous testing later if Pax began to show signs of working against them. Soundwave had a few tricks he liked to use to weed out spies and there were always unruly yobs in need of a punching bag if Pax betrayed them.

"If you truly wish to help, I have some ideas," Megatronus said. "Our supply of information is limited, here in Kaon, and it is difficult to ask for constructive reform when we don’t know exactly what we should be asking for. What property rights do the mid-caste have? How full are the fuel tanks of the high-caste on a regular day? You are a data clerk, I know that much, perhaps you can use your skills to spread information and run analyses?"

"That… yes. Yes, I can do that," Pax said fervently. "Yes. I hadn’t realised — of course."

"Such enthusiasm." Megatronus couldn’t help but match Pax’s smile. "Soundwave has a list, but if you can get me access to _An Extended History of Primus' Chosen_ , I will be _very_ grateful."

"I will."

Pax glanced at the door but made no move to leave and find Soundwave for his full assignment. Megatronus waited, he was in his element here, Pax would grow discomforted before long and blurt out whatever it was that was keeping him.

"You’ve said that you wish to scour caste-sympathisers from the system entirely," Pax said eventually. "Could you elaborate? It sounds to me like you believe violence is the only way to get reform, but I can’t see that as true."

Megatronus blinked. Of all the parts of his messages to be scrutinised.

"Why not? If the Council were going to change their minds on energon rationing for the low-caste, why haven’t they already done so when the medical stations were overrun with mechs with empty tanks?"

"Yet, I’m here," Pax said. "Because I heard your words, I’m here. Information within Kaon is indeed restricted, but the same is true in Iacon. I only saw your speech because I had to archive the footage in the Hall of Records. Can you offer violence to those ignorant of your plight?"

"I will offer violence to any who wish to keep us oppressed," Megatronus bit out.

"And how will you know that they do if you don’t ask them first?" Pax pushed. "I’ll spread my findings in Iacon too and you’ll be surprised at how many mechs will wish to help you gain equality."

"I fear you’ll be surprised by the number who want to keep us enslaved," Megatronus said.

"Perhaps, but I won’t know until I ask."

Megatronus laughed. "You’re going to be trouble, Orion Pax." He tugged Orion closer until his optics were reflecting off the polished metal of Megatronus’s helm. "Lucky for you, I like trouble."

Orion gave a shy smile. Maybe it would all end in spilt energon, but Megatronus was going to have fun until it did.

* * *

Optimus Prime was nervous.

It was more of a surprise to Megatron that he was alive at all, let alone having decided to seek out his old nemesis.

"Megatron," Optimus said, then paused.

"Optimus." Megatron hadn't spoken to anyone for years and he blamed that lack of practice for blurting out, "why are you here?"

"I came to find you," Optimus said like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

" _Why?_ "

Too much emotion. Megatron hated displaying his weaknesses so obviously.

But Optimus didn't comment on it. He never had. He had easier ways to bring Megatron to his knees.

"The war continues," he said instead. "Decepticons fight Autobot and, despite both our absences, they still rally to our names."

"What concern is that of mine?" Megatron asked. "You won, Optimus, do _not_ pretend otherwise. If you cannot maintain your desired peace, don’t come crying to me for help. I am _done_."

"May I sit with you?" Optimus asked quietly.

"It’s not like I can stop you," Megatron said.

"You have to but ask," Optimus said. "Tell me to leave and I will. However, if you can bear my company for a little longer, I would like to sit with you."

Megatron said nothing. Optimus didn’t move. If he’d been a mech prone to displays of discomfort, Megatron had no doubt he’d be fidgeting in anxiety — like Starscream used to.

"You’re distracting me," Megatron finally said. "Sit."

Optimus did so with a relieved smile. He’d left his battle mask open, something Megatron was still unused to.

He had been, once. There had been no mask fitted to Orion Pax’s helm.

"Why are you here, Optimus?"

"To find you. I… I have missed you, Megatron."

"You expect me to believe that is all?" Megatron said. "I am _tired_ , Optimus, I don’t want to play your games."

"I will not pretend that part of my motivation was not hoping you would help Cybertron’s rebirth," Optimus said, picking his words with the same grave care as always. "However, you have been one of the few constants during my entire functioning. I am… unbalanced without you."

It echoed Megatron’s realisation that he had spent much of his self-exile thinking about what Optimus would say or think about some of the strange things he had seen on his travels. What Optimus would make of _that_ species of organics, or _this_ burgeoning sentience on abandoned mechanised planets.

What he would think of Megatron now.

"How did you find me?" Megatron asked.

"I asked the Matrix," Optimus said. "You hold part of Unicron’s power, just as the Matrix holds part of Primus’s energies. They call to one another."

"And what do you want?"

"I want you to come home."

The first location to come to mind was the _Nemesis_. Megatron had spent so much of his functioning within its dark halls that it had become his default.

Of course, that wouldn’t be what Optimus meant.

"I am not welcome on Cybertron."

"If you returned with me, I would ensure that you are," Optimus said.

"It’s to be coercion then?" Megatron was too tired to get angry. "If I end up back in the war I _will_ kill you, Optimus."

Optimus sighed. "That is not what I meant, Megatron. I… Would you be happy for me to join you instead? Wherever your travels take you."

Megatron considered it and the difficulty of towing a flight-poor Optimus at superluminal speeds. Of being forced to stop at every other organic planet because the inhabitants were struggling with some petty problem. Of listening to lecture after lecture of why everything Megatron said or did was wrong.

Of spending the rest of his functioning with the only mech who had ever truly _understood_ him.

"And if I want to be left alone?"

"Then you need only say so," Optimus said.

The silence that fell was comfortable. If Optimus hadn’t been rebuilt by the Forge of Solus Prime it might not have been, but as it was, Megatron’s threat-flagging software kept tripping up on the differences in Optimus’s frame.

"How are you still functioning?" Megatron asked. He’d been wondering ever since Unicron’s final realisation that the Allspark must have been emptied into the Matrix.

"Megatronus Prime returned," Optimus said. "And I was required to stop him."

He did not elaborate further. Optimus was as tired of it all as Megatron was, that much was clear.

"I will not return to Cybertron so soon," Megatron decided. "But that doesn’t mean I won’t ever come back."

"And until then?" Optimus asked, a hint of hope buried deep in his optics.

"I wouldn’t mind the company," Megatron said. "Provided you don’t get all poetic about sentient organics all the time."

Optimus smiled and held out his hand. Megatron took it and together they watched the stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi over at [transformersvn.tumblr.com](https://transformersvn.tumblr.com) where I make Transformers visual novels.


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